Johnston sweeps Warwick en route to finals

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Warwick PAL’s quest to repeat as the Connie Mack champion fell short in the semifinals on Wednesday night, as Johnston polished off a sweep with a 2-0 win at Mickey Stevens.

Warwick southpaw Mike Broccoli turned in another impressive outing on the mound, allowing just one earned run in a complete-game effort.

But, unfortunately for Warwick, Johnston’s Jake Podmaska was just a little bit better, going the distance while yielding just two hits and no runs against a typically potent Warwick lineup.

Warwick mustered just five baserunners all game against Podmaska, who fanned seven in Johnston’s series clincher.

“I was feeling maybe the best I’ve felt this year,” Podmaska said. “I just thought of it as another game, just went out there and did my thing.”

For Warwick, it had to just tip its cap to Podmaska.

“[Podmaska] did a good job pitching, you have to give him his props,” Warwick manager Pete Palermo said. “That’s a good team over there. We just got beat by a good team.”

Both offenses went quietly in each of the first three innings, with the first run not being scored until the top of the fourth.

In that half inning, Romey Morel and Nick Raposo led off with back-to-back singles. Two batters later, Erry Baldyac grounded a ball to short that was misplayed by Justin Kennedy, allowing Morel to score to give Johnston a 1-0 lead.

An inning later, Johnston’s offense was back at it.

This time it was Morel driving in the run, lacing a double in the gap that brought Patrick Fleming in from third to stretch the lead to 2-0.

“We were sleepwalking through those first three innings,” Johnston coach Jerry Coro said. “But we were able to get some timely hits, and Jake [Podmaska] pitched great.”

Two runs may not seem insurmountable, but it turned out that it would be for a struggling Warwick offense.

Chris Duchesneau led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk, but Podmaska would strand him there, retiring the next three batters and stalling any momentum that Warwick was hoping to establish.

Johnston had Baldyac in the bullpen ready to go for the seventh, but his services weren’t needed.

Podmaska returned to the mound in search of putting the finishing touches on a complete game – and he would.

The right-hander retired the side in order in the seventh to secure a berth in the finals for his squad.

“Any time he got in trouble, he came right back,” Coro said of Podmaska. “We had our closer waiting out there, but Jake threw the ball well tonight.”

Johnston would go on to sweep top-seeded Coventry for the state championship over the weekend.

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